Set Design and Little Women

The Set for Little Women

This is Charles. While Little Women closed a week ago, I thought our audience might like to hear about (and look at) this highly innovative set.

Here is Set Designer Lex van Blommestein talking about his first impressions for the concept of the set:

"When I first read the script for Little Women I realized that it is not as simplistic as some musicals. There is a rich story, that involves other fantastic stories wrapped within. I had to develop a visual idea that allowed for an interesting way to portray the rich and embellished tales that are spinning in Jo March's head. In the end, the decision became clear... bring it back to the story(ies). I had to keep the fantasy alive and interesting without making it seem like it was being acted. Using a semi-transparent material on the walls allowed for the hazy dream like stories of Jo's head to be played, while in front of the walls the reality of the musical can come to life."


These first three images are the preliminary sketches of how the set might work.






Once the set was okayed by Ray Gabica (the director), Lex and the Technical Director, Chuck Griffin, sat down to figure out what kind of materials could be used that would give the set the look Lex wanted but be within the budget for summer theatre. Scrim, the material that allows light through it when lit from the back and opaque when lit from the front, is very expensive.

Lex and Chuck decided to use a much more cost effective cheese cloth that had many of the same properties. It is never as opaque, but since we never had to see a "realistic" wall, it would work well--always giving a slightly ghostly feel to the room. Once the frame was built, the cloth was stretched over it and sized with a mixture of water and glue. Chuck demonstrates the look of the raw flat.


Next, it was Lex's turn to paint. Since the whole play is composed of Jo thinking back over her life, he opted to see fragments of the wall, not a hyper realistic look. Notice how the wall paper stencil fades in and out over the flat. The stencil is cut by hand and used to get the regulated pattern of the wallpaper. In the attic it is a suggestion of the lath showing through the plaster. For the floor he painted large pages of manuscript.


Ray wanted the show to always remind us of Louisa Alcott's (and, hence Jo's) literary roots. Great panels looking like books on a shelf were used to hide the house and provide other locations. Here Charlie Cochran and Chuck hold up the frame before it is covered with regular muslin.



Here is one completed and ready to go to the paint area. The workshop is located in the same building as the paint shop. Our property storage is there, too. The building is located about half a mile from the theatre. It's very convenient---until you need to transport the set to the theatre in the rain.


The platformed area helped define where we were at any given moment in the musical. The highest area was the attic. A sitting room area was to the left that could double in both the house and the boarding house. And an entrance/passageway was to the right of the attic. Here the platforms are just built and put in place for the first time at the scene shop.

Th Designer and Scenic Artist, Lex van Blommestein with the Little Women wallpaper stencil. Lex guesses he spent 55 hours painting the walls, platforms and floor.